The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-14


boxing, and humping, and stamping, and
fault-finding, and teasing, until the children
are vexed beyond bounds and growl in the
sleeve and pout, and rebel, and vow within
themselves that in after days they will re-
taliate for the cruelties practiced. Many
home has become as full of dispute as was
the home of John O'Groat, who built his
house at the most northerly point in Great
Britain And tradition says that the house
had eight windows, and eight doors and
table of eight sides, because he had eight
children, and the only way to keep them
out of bitter quarrel was to have a separate
appointment for each one of them.
That child's nature is too delicate to be
worked upon by sledge-hammer, and gouge,
and pile-driver. Such fierce lashing, in
stead of breaking the high mettle to bit and
trace, will make it dash off the more uncon-
trollable. Many seem to think that chill
dren are fiax-not fit for use till they have
been hatcheled and swingled. Some one
talking to child said: II wonder what
makes that tree out there so crooked The
child replied: II suppose it was trod on
while it was young.n In some families all
the discipline is concentrated on one child's
head. If anything is done wrong, the sup
position is that George did it. He broke the
latch. He left open the gate. He hacked
the banisterS. He whitfield sticks on the
carpets. And George shall be the scape-
groat for all domestic misunderstanding
and suspicious. If things get wrong in the
culinary department., in comes the
mother and says, angrily: where is
Georges" If business matters are
perplexing at the store, in
comes the father at night and says, angrily:
"Where is GeorgeP' In many household
there is such a one singled out for suspicion
and castigation. All the sweet flowers of
his Cottl h1oetaad tInAar fhiC r1arrntJal north
east storm, he curses the day in which he
was born. Safer the child in an ark of bull
rusheS on the Nile, among croco1iles, than
i'll an elegant mansion. amid such domestic
gorgons. A mother was passing along the
street one day, and came up to her little
child, who did not see her approach, and
her child was saying to her playmate: "You
good-for-nothing little scamp, you come
right into the house this minute, or | will
beat you till the skin comes off" The
mother broke in, saying: "Why, Lizzie, |
am surprised to hear you talk like that to
anyone!" "Oh,n said the child, Il was
only playing, and he is my little boy, and |
am scolding him. as you did me this morn
ing.n Children are apt to be echoes of their
parents.
Safer in a Bethlehem manger, among
cattle and camels, with gentle Mary to
watch the little innocent, than the most ex-
peace never stood. The trapper extinguishes
the flames on the prairie by fighting fire
with fire, but you cannot, with the fire of
your own disposition, put out the fire of
child's disposition.
Yet we may rush to the other extreme,
and rule children with too great leniency.
The surgeon is not un1ind because, notwlth-
standing the resistance of his patient, he goes
straight on, with firm hand and unfaltering
TO foI~ of fhn Nfaa.i 10
parent less affectionate and faithful because,
notwithstanding all violent remonstrances
on the part of the child, he, with the firmest
discipline, advances to the cutting off of its
evil incinations. The Bible says "Chasten
thy son while there is hope and let
not thy soul spare for his crying
Childish rage unchecked will, after a
while, become hurricane. Childish petu
lance will grow up into misanthropy. Child
ish rebellion will develop into the lawless-
ness of riot and seditior. If you would ruin
the child, dance to his every caprice and
stuff him with confectionery. Before you
are aware of it that boy of six years will 60
down the street, a cigar in his mouth, and
ready on any corner with his comrades to
compare pugilistic attainments. The parent
who allows the child to grow up without ever
having learned the great duty of obedience
and submission has prepared a cup of burn
struction for his descendant. Remember
Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
A second error prevalent in the training
of children is laying out of a theory and
following it without arranging it to yarie-
ties of disposition. In every family you
will find striking differences of tempera-
ment. This child is too timid, and that too
bold, and this too miserly and that too
wasteful this too inactive, and that too
hxN.p he 70, xuhn gI1n
plant corn, and wheat and turnips i'll just
the same way, then put them through one
hopper and grind them in the same mill,
would not be as much of a fool as the par
ents who should attempt to discipline and
educate all their children in the same man
ner. II needs a skillful hand to adjust these
checks and balances. The rigidity OF gov
ernment which is necessary to hoid i'll this
impetuous nature would utterly crush that
fexile disposition, while the gentle reproof
that would suffice for the latter would,
when used on the former, be
like attempting to hold a champing
Bucephalus with rens of gossamer. God
gives us in the disposition of each child a
hint as TO how we ought to train him, and,
as God i'll the mental structure OF our chill
dren indicates what mode of training is the
best, He also indicates in the disposition
their future occupation Do not write
now be as brilliant as your other children or
as those Of your neighbor. Some of the
mightiest men and women of the centuries
had a stupid childhood. Thomas Aquinas
was called at school ''the dumb OK" but
afterward demonstrated his sanctifed
genius and was called 1.-The angel of the
schools" and 1.-THE eagle Of Brittany" Kind
ness and patience with child will conquer
almost anything, and they are virtues so
Christlike that they are inspiring to look at
John Wesley's kiss of child on the pulpit
stairs turned Matthias Joyce from a profit
gate into flaming evangel
The third error prevalent in the training
of children is the one-sided development of
either the physical, intellectual or moral
nature at the expense of the others. Those,
for instance, greatly mistake who, while
they are faithful in the intellectual and
moral culture of children, forget the phys
ical. The bright eyes half quenchej by
night study, the cramped chest that comes
from too much bending over school desks,
the weak side resulting from sedentariness
of habit, pale cheeks and the gault bodies
of multitudes of children attest that phys
ical development does not always 20 along
with intellectual and moral How do you
suppose all those treasures OF knowledge
the child gets will look in shattered caslSets
And how much will you give for the
wealthiest cargo when 1t is put into leaky
ship! How can that bright sharp blade Of
child's attachments be welded without
any handler What are brains worth with
out shoulders 60 carry than! What is
child with magnificent mind but an ex-
hausted body? Better that young man OF